Happy New Year from Abberly Place. We would like to thank our residents, friends, family, and community for allowing our business to be part of your lives in 2017. We wish all of you a wonderful and prosperous 2018!

If we have had the pleasure of being your choice in communities, we hope that we provided the highest level of customer service and met all of your needs. In the coming months if you find yourself in need of the services we offer, we hope you choose us again in 2018.

It is our sincere wish that in the New Year you are surrounded by warmth, family, and friendship and that 2018 brings you good health and prosperity. From all of us here at Abberly Place we hope you have a safe and exciting New Year.

“We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday – the longer, the better…” ~ Charles Dickens

If a friend, relative, or valued service provider has a website, give them the gift of a business Facebook “like” this Holiday season. This act is free and will literally take you 30 seconds or less. By doing so, you help your friend or relative further establish business credibility and trust from an online standpoint.

Why do this? The reason is simple. Facebook “likes” is something that business owners can refer to promote their business popularity and interaction with their clients. It is also a widely accepted conclusion that Facebook “likes” play some role in how a website converts visitors into customers.

So if you know anyone with a website and wish them well in business, take 30-seconds and “like” their business Facebook page. Look for the Facebook logo usually located at the top or bottom of the website’s home page. Then shoot them a quick note saying, “Happy Holidays. I recently “liked” your business Facebook page and wish you continued business success in 2018 and beyond”. It would be a kind gesture and one that cost you nothing other than 30 seconds of your time.

To all our regular readers of this blog, we wish you all Happy Holidays and only the best for 2018 and beyond.

Revitalization—it’s a word used to describe what’s happening in nearly every American city right now, but in the South, our cities aren’t so much undergoing a revitalization as much as they are an awakening. Sure, we’re breathing new life into historic buildings and settling into homes that are in high rises and once-neglected neighborhoods. But from the Gulf coast to the Atlantic coast, a diverse mix of lifelong Southerners, millennials, newcomers, and transplants are launching start-ups, building new restaurants, creating new music, solving problems, and coloring the South as one of, if not the, most exciting regions of the country to live. And it's happening in ways we couldn’t have even imagined a decade ago.

Up the coast, the North Carolina Research Triangle is firing on all cylinders now that Durham has developed into a cultural hotspot.

8. Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina

Once in the shadow of its sister city, Durham has become a formidable cultural counterpart to Raleigh.